Ibibo buys minority stake in cloud-based hotel services Djubo

The company is majority-owned by South Africa-headquartered internet and media group Naspers, which also an investor in Flipkart.Biswarup Gooptu | ET Bureau | Updated: August 28, 2015, 16:21 IST

After years of advertising the lowest possible fares, online travel sites like Makemytrip, Hotels.com, Goibibo and Yatra are talking hotels.Online travel company Ibibo Group has picked up a minority stake in cloud-based hotel services startup Djubo for an undisclosed amount. This is the first investment by the company since it acquired YourBus in March last year.

"We are looking to solve the problems in the transportation and accommodation segments. This means looking at both the buy side and the sell side, and we feel Djubo will play a significant role in filling the existing gaps," said Ashish Kashyap, group CEO of Ibibo Group.

The company is majority-owned by South Africa-headquartered Internet and media group Naspers, which also an investor in Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce company. ​Ibibo Group competes with Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip.com, Yatra.com and Cleartrip.com, among others.

The latest investment by Ibibo Group has been routed through its Singaporean entity MIH India E-commerce.

According to Kashyap, Ibibo Group, which has a monthly revenue run rate of Rs 1,000 crore from its two main segments, and sees transactions of 3.2-3.5 million a month, also expects to step up its pace of investments in the current fiscal.

“Our vision is to go really deep in the transportation and accommodation segments, and this year will hopefully see us more active in terms of investments in those particular areas,” Kashyap said.

In 2014, Ibibo Group completed its acquisition of Bengaluru-based online bus ticketing venture redBus for an estimated $100 million in one of the biggest mergers and acquisitions deals at the time in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Prior to that in March 2012, it had acquired B2B online travel platform Travel BoutiqueOnline for an undisclosed sum.

The Djubo transaction is the latest investment in the online travel and accommodation business over the past few months.

In September last year, MakeMyTrip launched a $15 million Innovation Fund to invest in startups working on travel-related technology. In April, it was reported that MakeMyTrip had acquired intuitive travel planning website Mygola.com, using proceeds from the fund.

Last month, the Deep Kalra-founded company announced that it had picked up 28% stake in Bengaluru-based HolidayIQ, a travel community and holidays planning recommendation venture for $15 million.